


ehturë

by mickleborger



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Gen, a little bit of death kind of, sad elves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-04
Updated: 2014-01-04
Packaged: 2018-01-07 09:58:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1118535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mickleborger/pseuds/mickleborger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ecthelion is the second of his parents' children.</p>
            </blockquote>





	ehturë

His sister loves music, though she's better at crafting.  When they are young she often takes him to the shore to watch Swanhaven glittering in the distance, under starlight, their shadows stretching before them across the water.  She takes him to the shore to hear, far off in the darkness, the Falmari sing.  She loves them.  Ecthelion, too, falls in love with them.

As they get older they take to going outright to the Haven to wander the streets lined with shells and pearls, to smile at the white-haired sailors, to dance along to the shanties they sing.  If there are politics here they have no obligation to them.  If there is anything but music here they do not have to be concerned with it.

When Ecthelion comes into his own it's among the Sea-elves, not the Noldor.  They notice in him a musical ear and they take him in.  They love him and, most importantly, they give him a place where he feels like he belongs.  The Noldor are not known for their music, though sometimes he sees Maglor in the streets of Tirion and they exchange a knowing glance, the corners of their mouths angling up just slightly.

(Maglor!  Ha, Maglor...)

It's through Ecthelion that his sister meets her spouse.  He is one of Ecthelion's companions and one day he sees her, dark hair unbound and river-blue eyes flashing.  She sees him, hair like starlight and eyes like the sea beneath it.  She elects to stay in Swanhaven.

When comes the Flight, Ecthelion hears the crash of steel from a place from which he has only ever heard song and his heart drops to the bottom of the Sea and he stumbles, Glorfindel only just catching him and staring in concern.  Ecthelion does not speak when they cross the Ice; it is only on it, far out, that Idril catches his eye and suddenly understands.  They stick together, in Beleriand.  She does not speak of her mother.  He does not speak of his sister.

His sister is fine, of course.  She and her immediate family were far from Swanhaven at the time of the Kinslaying.  But, for centuries, Ecthelion does not know this for sure; and he hides his anxiety beneath smirks and music, between jokes and prancing.  There's no point in spending his life thinking about this; but he stares, often, longingly, towards Lindon where the Teleri sing.  They are always further east than he, the Teleri.  They always sing from the direction of the rising Sun, the Teleri.

Ecthelion thinks of what Swanhaven must look like in sunlight.

When he tackles Gothmog into the water and feels the cool of the fountain he thinks again of Ehturë.  Unto the Halls he thinks of her, and it is with a mix of grief and relief that he finds only Glorfindel there.

When they are both let back into Valinor they are waiting for him, him with his arms crossed, she not sure if she wants to scowl or smirk.  They have two children now and they are grown, and the eldest has a singing voice like the wind through the sea-rock.

She takes him to the cliff they used to play by when they were young and sits him there, facing east, through his very first sunrise in Aman.  He tries not to cry.  Through hiccuping sobs and the first hug they've shared in six hundred years, she calls him an idiot.

When Glorfindel leaves for Endor again, Ecthelion does not accompany him.  He ties only a bow around Glorfindel's favorite building for every year Glorfindel is gone.

(When Glorfindel returns he stares a long while before turning to Ecthelion, scowling.  Ecthelion glows with happiness.)


End file.
